Commonwealth Empire's 7th Gathering - Richmond, Virginia (7.24.04)

Starting out 2 hours late and a bit small on the audience turnout, the Commonwealth Empire's 7th gathering of Queensryche fans was a modest, but nice event.

After some equipment delays with the house setup, the CWE were able to experience NuParadigm artists Odin's Court, Proceed To Oblivion and Brave. Odin's Court performed their set. It was enthusiastically recieved and the band certainly gained some new fans. Images of Eden was unable to perform due to the aforementioned technical issues, but vocalist Gordon Tittsworth showed the Empire there was a quality Tate-influenced voice in their midst singer when he performed two Iron Maiden covers, "Wasted Years" and "The Trooper", and roused the crowd on guest vox with Odin's Court.

Proceed To Oblivion was up next and their set was well recieved too. They were good and tight and drew plenty of applause from the crowd. They even learned a Queensryche song - Bridge - just for the occasion. This was performed again with the night's MVP, Gordon Tittsworth, on vocals for a short, spur-of-the-moment performance. It would have been nice if the bands could have played more covers since the crowd really got off on them.

Due to time issues, I had to leave and missed Brave, but not before I could partake in some of the great catered food CWE had set up. It's the first show I've been to where I was able to help myself to wings, potato skins, cheese sticks, meatballs and an open bar (!). They even had a custom bakery cake made up with the Queensryche logo image.

Although the gig was small, it was quaint and friendly. Anyone interested in the Commonwealth Empire or the Queensryche Internation Fanclub can contact Colin Connelly via the CWE website @ www.commonwealthempire.com. Anyone interested is some underground progressive metal can also check out NuParadigm Musics website at: www.nuparadigmmusic.com